Princeton CSENERGY 714 17IN LCD 1280X1024 XGA ANA/DIG

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Value for the Money
Review: I just purchased one of these monitors to replace an aging Viewsonic 19" CRT and I'm extremely impressed. It had no dead pixels when I recieved it and was a snap to set up. The picture is clear and bright (so bright out of the box, I had to adjust the brightness down). My only beef with it is that the labels on the controls are very difficult to read, fortunately, I won't need to constantly adjust the monitor.

The response time is sufficient fast to eliminate ghosting on 3D shooters, and other graphics look beautiful, despite the presence of a 6-bit, rather than 8-bit LCD matrix (6-bit matrixes are becoming common on monitors that offer quick response times at fairly low prices). I can't see any evidence of dithering (the method by which it emulates 16+ million colors), and I've looked very closely at images I'm familiar with.

Although it's a 17" monitor, it has about the same amount of viewable area as my old 19". Since it's an LCD, and capable of displaying a higher resolution more clearly than a CRT, I feel like I have more viewing area now. Plus, I was able to take advantage of the $75 rebate, making this a steal!

Rating:
Summary: You Cant Beat a Monitor at this Price
Review: I just received my monitor today and am pleased with the quality. This monitor is sleak and professional looking. It does not have a lot of gadgets, but what it has is sufficient for the common user. No dead pixels was a very large plus and the DVI-input is a serious bonus for the money. This monitor has to be a top contender for the price range and possibly above. With deals Amazon is having, you would be crazy to pass on this monitor.

Rating:
Summary: I'm Sending it Beck: No Signal Problem
Review: I really wish this would have worked for me because the price is great. I am using a new Asus N5750 PVI Express video card connected to the DVI port of this monitor and it the monitor frequently and abrubtly reports that it has lost the signal. Once this happens, it's really difficult to get the monitor going again. I usually end up having to unplug the DVI cable from this monitor and plug it into my smaller Dell LCD to be able to resume what I was working on. I searched the web to try to find a resolution to this problem but didn't find anything. I figure if the thing gives me trouble within the 1st hour of use, I'm going to return in immediately.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding. Buy it.
Review: I was toying with the idea of buying a 17" LCD to replace my horrific KDS 19" XFlat. I was on my 3rd monitor with the same warranty, now the color is shot! So needless to say, KDS was off my list.

I started investigating monitors a couple of weeks ago to find that many LCD's are still working with analog inputs only. I have an ancient Blue & White G3 at home that has analog out, but I also have a 12" PowerBook with DVI out. So I was not willing to buy a monitor without both connectors. That of course means you usually pay a premium. Something I did not want to do. After seeing the monitor was going to cost upwards of $400, I put my purchase on the back burner.

Well a few days ago I was minding my own business, and I was reading info on my of my favorite Apple news sites called "[...]" which has a "Latest Deals" section. It was there that I noticed a headline for the Princeton Senergy714. The price was less than $300, and offered a $75 rebate! My curiosity got the best of me, and I had to check it out. What I couldn't believe were the specs on this monitor! They were all "high-end" except for the price. I was a bit sketchy ordering a monitor without seeing it in person because I have a critical eye from being in graphics for 15 years. I've also seen so many bad monitors in the stores that I really thought seeing one in person would be wise. But the deal was too good to pass up and I pulled the trigger. I saw [...] Well my monitor arrived today and I am absolutely thrilled! I was surprised it came with every cable needed to hook up to 2 different computers, including a cable for the speakers! What I didn't know the monitor could do was be hooked up to 2 computers at the same time, and simply switch between the two with the front "input" button! I was expecting to have play around with plugs when I wanted to swap computers, but all I have to do is press one button! What a huge bonus! The colors are super vivid. The monitor is really bright. In fact it has brightness and contrast to spare. - Something I've never seen in ANY monitor. The surrounding and base are both classy (unlike several others monitors I've seen.) The onscreen menu is very basic. Not the best I've seen, but once you set it, you're good to go. The built in speakers are terrible. I have them hooked up to my G3, but I don't listen to music or play games on it. I suppose they're better than the single stock speaker on my tower. - But not much. Another nice bonus is that the monitor has both tilt and swivel. The specs say it has a 150-degree viewing angle, which is a bit below the top monitors made, but if you're sitting at a desk, even rocking back in forth in front of the monitor, you will not see any color shifting or degradation of view. The extra real estate is spectacular. I've been using a 15" iMac for 4 years, and can't wait to upgrade to something larger. I'm almost tempted to buy a Mac Mini, put this monitor on it, and call it a day. My bill would be 50% less than an iMac G5. For the price and the features, you will not find more monitor-bang for your buck. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Monitor for a Great Price
Review: I've had the 714 for about 3 weeks now, and love it. I bought it to replace my gigantic 19" CRT which had done its job well, but I needed more desk space.

I started researching flat pannels around the net - looking for a 17" with 16 ms response or less with a DVI input. Not the cheapest monitors around by any means. Then I found the Princeton here. I'd never heard of Princeton before this purchase, so I did a good deal of research - mostly customer reviews. I don't really care what random sites and magazines have to say, but when people who actually use it give it such great reviews, I figure I couldn't lose.

And thus far, I haven't. This monitor has excellent color, great response time for the games I've played (Half Life 2 among them), and no dead pixels. The final kicker was the price - you won't find another monitor of this quality for this price. And with the rebate, there's really no thought required. Even without the rebate.

The only downside I've noticed is on a pure black screen, you get some light around the edges, but with a normally lit screen, you'll barely notice it.

Rating:
Summary: Slow Delivery
Review: Im sure this LCD is a great buy, I cant say for certain because i havent gotten mine yet. I ordered mine on Januart 11th and it has not even been shiped yet. Shipping estimate is still 4 days away and the earliest delivery estimate is next month. This is for a 5-9 bussiness day shipping. I dont see how gettin my LCD on feb 2nd (hopefully) after ordering on Jan 11th comes to 5-9 bussiness days. So if you want to be looking at your 200+ dollar purchase in the same month. You should select a faster delivery, but then it wount be such a great buy since you'll have to pay a arm and a leg for shipping.

Rating:
Summary: Great Screen, but DVI may not work on your Mac
Review: This is an updated review. The first one wasn't so good, as I could not get the monitor to work with an ADC to DVI adapter on my Power Mac. But, I feel that this is a limitation of the video card, not the monitor. The screen works beautifully via VGA, and when I upgrade the video card to DVI, I'm sure it will work even better. (...) Keep in mind, if you are going to use it on a Mac with an ADC port, it may not work with the ADC to DVI adapter. I would upgrade the rating to 4 stars, but don't see how to change that aspect of the review.

Rating:
Summary: Can't beat this awesome deal!!!
Review: This is my first 17" and to top it off my first flat panel lcd. I am very pleased with what I've purchased and its only my 4th day using it. Although the shipping could of been faster, the the end result was worth the wait. You get everything you need and want in an lcd and for a very very reasonable low price. What more can you ask for? Do not miss out on this deal!!!

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but not sure it's "all that"
Review: This monitor has some positives and some negatives. However, some or all the negatives may be inherent to this class of monitor, or my rather low-end graphics card (MSI Radeon 9550 - 128).

Pros:

1. Sharp at maximum resolution.
2. Saves a lot of space on the desktop. Base is 8" square.
3. Adjustable screen height/angle. You can center it at eye-level. Swivels side-to-side as well (but why?).
4. Analog, DVI, audio and power cables are included.

Cons:

1. Anything less than maximum resolution (1280 x 1024) setting is disappointing. 800 x 600 is probably lower-limit acceptable if you don't mind large fonts and buttons, but anything in the middle resolution is headache-inducing. However, as this has "digital video input" (if you want/have) I assume it is/should be used at maximum resolution - or else what's the point? My $89 17" Proview has a better picture compared to all but the highest resolution of this monitor.

2. Screen adjustment (in digital input mode) is basically limited to the brightness of the backlight (and this is a bright monitor), choice of 3 preset or a user-adjusted color-temperature, and choice of 4 gamma selections. You can change the contrast of the R, G and B. You can also change the location of the (smallish) on-screen display.

In analog mode, there's a different set of adjustments.

3. If you scroll a page of text or images at anything faster than a snail crawl, it will be blurry. Might be totally unsuitable for some applications.

So-so's:

1. Speakers are only good for system sounds, but you don't buy a monitor for its sound, hopefully.

2. You can see the screen and even read it from way off to the side, but the apparent color-temperature, brightness and contrast starts to go down at anything more than about 30 degrees off center. Basically, you can lean from side to side and up and down, and it still looks good, though.

3. The manual is so-so but perhaps better than that of your average made-in-Thailand product. A few of the specs in the manual (250 nits, 430:1 contrast) seem to be a bit different than in the Amazon product description, but I have no way to measure, and have no complaints.

Had a somewhat scary start that worked out OK in the end. After turning off my computer and hooking the monitor up in DVI mode, then powering up, everything look fine - except the OSD which had unintelligible garbled pixels where the words should have been - it looked like a color-blindness test, actually. So, powered off and hooked up to analog. Worked fine - OSD fine. Powered off, hooked up to DVI - everything fine.

Seems to be a reasonable product with no bad pixels - and a good price with the rebate.






Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: This monitor... is just great. I honestly was not prepared for the incredible quality of this display... color is just insanely saturated (reds in particular are incredibly vivid), and the backlight is super bright, so much so that I am tempted to turn it down. As another reviewer said, there is a very slight bluish cast that I corrected with a custom color profile. No dead/stuck pixels. No ghosting. Came with all the cables. DVI at this price is unheard of, I'm so glad I found this monitor and didn't have to compromise with a (strictly) VGA one, and am able to take advantage of my PowerBook's DVI connection. Speaking of the PowerBook, this display put the PowerBook's to absolute SHAME, I was intending to use the 'Book as a secondary display, but I can't even look at it in the same glance after looking at this monitor. Anyway, again, this thing is phenomenal. Don't walk, RUN to your wallet and buy this thing, you will NOT regret it.